Another week come and gone! And the
work continues! It's certainly been an exciting week here in the D.C. South
Mission!
The week started with a pretty
normal couple of days. We had lots of excitement this weekend though, for sure!
First off, I'm not sure if there's
anything more exciting than a mission call that was made this week! Sister
Rachel Hodgson received her mission call this week to the Hawaii Honolulu
Mission! How exciting is that?! Another really cool thing about that is we both
submitted our papers on the same day!! January 8th of consecutive years!
Though, she got her call 2 days faster than I did..... grumble grumble.. haha except
not. I'm way excited for her!
Wednesday night was another pretty
exciting thing... I got a text from the Zone Leaders: "Hey, Elder Hodgson,
can you come with Elder T and us to a meeting tomorrow with the
missionary department?" Whaaaat? I was a little confused... Elder T
is our District Leader.
So, Thursday morning, I hopped in a
car with one Zone Leader and two District Leaders and went to a meeting with
Brother Donaldson and Brother Wade from the missionary department. Upon
arriving, I found I wasn't the only one there without a leadership
position, so I felt a little more at home. haha It was a fantastic meeting. We
talked about new ways to look at our role as missionaries and new techniques to
teaching investigators and less active members. We also received some special
training on how to conduct chapel tours and involve and prepare members to help
with the work. We all feel very strongly that these new views of the
"mundane" things we do will help our mission to get to places that it's
never been before. It was a huge blessing to be able to attend that meeting.
This week, we've also had a push,
led by our fearless Ward Mission Leader, Brother F to help us have more member
exchanges, so we can cover twice as much ground, but only in cars. We're
excited for that, too, because there are some areas here in Vienna that are,
quite simply, treacherous for cyclists...
The last special story is that in
church on Sunday, I was treated to a little surprise! We're sitting in the chapel,
waiting for Sacrament Meeting to start, when in walks N and S!! N and S were in my first area, and N is the first
person I was blessed to see enter the waters of baptism, and a lifelong friend.
It was a huge blessing to have them join us for a bit. They were only able to
stay for 2 hours, but it was fantastic to be able to see them :)
Finally, I just wanted to share
something that has been on my mind recently. This gospel is real.
Really, it is, it's real. We often say we know this gospel is true, but
when I thought about it, and asked myself if I know it's real. My
testimony grew. Think about all that entails. Prayer, is real. Fasting,
is real. The scriptures are real accounts, written by real
people, about real events. Alma, Nephi, Moroni, Ammon, the prayers they
offered, the sacrifices they made, the stories they lived for us, they're all real.
It all really happened. And it all really happens today like it did then. The
prophetic announcement of the age-change for missionaries is a real
revelation that a real prophet received from a real God. It's all
real. And it strengthened me immensely when I finally admitted that to
myself.
I hope everyone is well! God Bless
You!
-Elder Hodgson
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